The operation and maintenance of grids for transporting and distributing water are linked to the instances of comparatively complex decisions. These decisions govern the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation and maintenance of the grids. The degree of complexity arises from a large number of aspects, for example, technical, commercial or legal aspects, and dependencies which can be influenced by the respective decision or can be taken as a basis for a decision. Decisions may additionally take account of various time horizons, which likewise increases the degree of complexity. The making of decisions concerns the stipulation and prioritization of measures for maintaining or improving the operation of the water grids (operative aspects), such as action planning for pumping stations and prioritization, planning and implementation of maintenance measures, such as necessary repairs for remedying leaks in the short term.
In order to support decision-making by the management, operators or maintainers, various software-based systems and/or applications are known to be used which provide different functionalities and hence depict only subaspects of the decision-making process. Reasons for the large number of systems and/or applications are firstly comprehensive systems for decision support which are absent, unavailable on the market, but secondly also the historical development for the water suppliers, particularly in respect of their own developments in computer-aided and/or software-based systems and/or applications.
By way of example, individual systems and/or applications of this kind cover the areas of action planning for pumping stations, pressure management or maintenance planning on the basis of—frequently estimated and/or assumed—information about the current state (actual state) of the grid.
Systems and/or applications of this kind generally use different data records and databases as a source and for dumping data, which ultimately means reduced efficiency, since continuous systematic use of new integration concepts is not envisaged and/or cannot be applied.
The use of different systems and/or applications with individual functionalities as “standalone” systems (insular systems) and/or applications requires a change between the systems and/or applications and also requires provision of respectively required information and data, particularly having a structure and/or data format which is customized to the respective system or to the respective application, in order to be able to employ or use a system and/or an application using results from further systems and/or applications that are used.
Thus, by way of example, results from the calculations relating to pressure management cannot be employed for use in action planning without additional involvement.
In addition, as already indicated, the decision-making is based on different data sources, such as historical and/or application-specific databases, which have to date been operated as standalone databases/systems on account of an absence of integration into an overall system. Not only does the assembly of information from the various standalone databases represent considerable additional time involvement, the manual search for information means that important data records can be overlooked, as a result of which the risk of error is increased.
For more effective and efficient decision-making for the area of water distribution and/or water transportation, the use of a comprehensive and integrative approach is of crucial significance. This approach provides the incorporation into the control system environment, which means that not only historical, structural, simulation, topology, grid, maintenance and further data can be used within the context of the decision-making but also realtime data which reflect the current state of the grid. The incorporation of systems and/or applications by means of standardized interfaces allows central data storage, data management and provision of required data and information as an elementary basis for decision-making and planning support.
Necessary decisions concern the operation, planning and maintenance of water grids (transportation and distribution). For example, decisions which concern maintenance may address tactical, short-term measures such as the stipulation of necessary repair measures, or else longer-term strategic measures such as the removal or reinstallation or restoration of pipeline grids. The integrative approach could reduce the degree of complexity for the respective decision-maker accordingly.
From a current point of view, however, there are disadvantageously neither comprehensive, integrated systems for supporting decision-making nor—in respect of the functionality of such a system—a standard paraphrase, i.e. that the water suppliers employ different systems and/or applications in different forms. In this case, it should be remembered that systems and/or applications are known which are typically used for making decisions but are usually only insular solutions which are quite incapable of resorting to a completely integrated database and hence only take account of subaspects in the decision or can be used only in certain areas.
In view of the above, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide a means of improved and efficient decision-making.